Under new pressure to swiftly increase safety measures, Metrolink will begin adding a second engineer to some of its commuter trains in the first visible reform since a deadly crash in Chatsworth.
Chief Executive David R. Solow made the announcement Friday at a meeting of Metrolink's Board of Directors.
He said the backup engineers will come from a pool of employees normally used to replace primary engineers who are on vacation, sick or out on training. Previously, when those employees were not running trains, they performed administrative work or collected fares.
There are 10 to 15 relief engineers available each day, Solow said, but the number riding shotgun would change, depending on how many already were filling in for colleagues.
"It's just an interim measure until we can find something permanent," he said in an interview. "We're going to use them as much as we can as another set of eyes."
The backup engineers will be posted on routes near where they are usually assigned, places such as San Bernardino, Moorpark, Oceanside and Lancaster.
"We may have to make some changes over time," Solow said.
The Metrolink chief said he was not sure if a train with two engineers had taken to the rails under the new measure. A Metrolink spokesman who said he would provide the information did not get back to The Times.
Metrolink's board also asked for an audit of how the agency operates overall, "a critical analysis, what is working, what needs improvement," said Vice Chairman Keith Millhouse, who is also a Moorpark city councilman.
The move toward two engineers comes after a Metrolink train failed to heed a warning light on Sept. 12 and crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth. Twenty-five people died and 135 were injured in the most deadly commuter rail accident in modern California history.
Although the accident remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, early indications are that human error caused the crash.
Since the collision, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and several other members of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority -- Metrolink's largest local financial backer -- have pushed the regional commuter railroad to add safety measures, such as automatic braking devices and a video camera to monitor locomotive crews.
